Christian County, IL Poor House Data

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Christian County, IL Poor House Data

CHRISTIAN COUNTY ALMSHOUSE— OCTOBER 4, 1910.
Source: SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF THE State Charities Commission, By Illinois State Charities Commission, December 31, 1911
Reports of Inspections of County Jails Visited During 1911
Submitted by Candi Horton

Reports of Inspections of the County Infirmaries of Illinois in 1911
J. M. HOLDERLY, Superintendent, Owaneco.
The Christian county almshouse is made up of several buildings. The main building, which houses the superintendent's family and the female inmates, is a two-story frame structure. The floors are old, rough and unpainted; the plastering is badly cracked, and the ceiling looks wretched, as the roof leaks every time it rains. Many of the women's rooms are provided with faded carpets, and, although they are very bare — having only little tables and iron beds for furniture — they are clean and fairly well aired. The dirt floors in the basement keep the place damp and musty in spite of the care which the present keeper takes of the rooms. One of the men's buildings is a one-story brick building which is not even heated by a stove in the winter. There is a hot-air furnace in the building, which has been useless for several years. The condition of roof, floors and walls is as bad as in the main building. The second men's building has two stories and is of brick. Their sitting room, a bare room, with straight-back chairs and a rusty stove, is in this building. Two sick men occupy a small, three-room building which is supplied with a stove and a bath tub. Water has to be carried to this tub so inmates are not regularly required to bathe. The sexes are well separated, as the women are locked in their separate rooms at night. But the danger from fire is thus rendered greater, as there is no protection whatever. Washing is done out of doors. This almshouse is kept in a clean condition and is practically free from vermin, but the bad roofs, cellars, lack of toilet and bath facilities, the forced use of rusty old stoves, make the struggle of caring for sick inmates a hard one.
Adequate help is not provided.